The Diplomat:
China has made an advance payment under a contract made public in April 2015 for the procurement of four to six Russian-made S-400 Triumph (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) missile defense systems, Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov said in an interview with TASS.
“We still have to go through a whole number of formal procedures, which we have not yet completed, although we have already received an advance payment. I believe we’ll settle these procedures by the end of the year,” Chemezov, who heads Russia’s largest defense industrial conglomerate, explained.
Furthermore, Chemezov revealed that the first batch of S-400 air defense systems could be already delivered in the first quarter of 2017. China is the first international customer of Russia’s most advanced medium- and long-range antiaircraft missile system.
The head of Rostec did not disclose additional details about the weapons deal estimated to be worth $3 billion. As I noted previously, one of the major questions is what types of missiles Russia will sell to China for the three-tier air defense system.
For example, the 40N6 missile has an estimated operational range of 400 km (248.5 miles), however, the 48N6 missile has a more limited range estimated at around 250 kilometers (155 miles). It is not certain that the 40N6–developed by the Fakel Machine Building Design Bureau–is operational yet. The S-400 air defense system can also launch 9M96E and 9M96E2 medium-range ground-to-air missiles.
